I’m not brilliant in the kitchen, but I will say that if there’s one “skill” that I have when it comes to cooking and baking, it’s being able to make do with what’s around.  I can see ingredients and think, “Hmm… I could probably make _______ with that” and then give it a try.  It’s something that I learned from my mom.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Life is a lot like that.

The other day, I wanted to make some dinner rolls.  I’d gotten the main supper dish sorted.  It was packed with veggies and all sorts of other good things, but we still needed a little something extra… a bit more food on the table…

I turned to the amazing internet and typed in “quick yeast dinner rolls” and came back with a few options.  Naturally, I didn’t have all of the ingredients for any of them, but I did have some of the ingredients and decided to give it a whirl…

And being me, I would have to misread the directions and let them rise one too many times.  Didn’t seem to hurt them all that much, though

No Knead Yeast Rolls (original, unmodified recipe found here)

Yield: 12 dinner rolls

• 1 1/4 C whole wheat flour
• 1 C standard white flour
• 2 T organic cane sugar
• Sprinkle of salt
• 1 package (2 1/4 tsps) active dry yeast
• 1 C very warm tap water (uncomfortable to the touch, but not scalding)
• 2 T avocado + olive oil spread (I used Olivani brand)
• 1 egg

Mix whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl.  Add water, avocado oil spread, and egg; mix with a spoon till well combined and smooth.  Add in 1 C of standard flour, 1/4 C at a time, mixing after each addition until all flour is incorporated (you may need to use your hands).  Use a spatula to remove any sticking bits of dough from the side of the bowl, cover with a warm, damp cloth and set it to rise in a warm spot for about 30 minutes or till doubled (it took my dough about 40 minutes to double).  After dough has doubled, stir about 25 – 30 times, cover, and let rise again for another 20 minutes (I misread the directions here – you could omit this step and go straight to putting them in the muffin cups, as detailed below).

Stir down the dough with a spoon and, using your hands, pull off some of the dough and put it into the muffin cups.  Cover with a damp towel and return to a warm place to rise for another 20 minutes.  In the meantime, preheat your oven to 400F/205C.

Bake rolls for 15 minutes, or till tops are golden brown.

They’re good.  Quite good, if I do say so myself.  I was a little worried about using the avocado oil spread in lieu of shortening (which is what was originally called for) but I don’t keep shortening around and the Olivani was all that I had.  Chris told me that, of all my recent whole wheat bread experiments, this was his favourite.  I’ll take that as a mark of success and add this one to the recipe files.